Nico Hülkenberg admits he has not spoken to Mick Schumacher since he took over his seat with the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, but he feels that if it had not been him replacing him then it would likely have been someone else.
Schumacher was released by Haas after two seasons with the team having scored points on only two occasions, while he was also responsible for two of the biggest crashes of the season in Saudi Arabia and Monaco that cost the team a lot of money in repairs.
Hülkenberg returns to Formula 1 after three years on the side-lines to partner Kevin Magnussen, and the German says he did not really have a close relationship with the driver he replaces, but he feels that Schumacher was going to be replaced by someone, whether it was him or another driver.
“We haven’t spoken to each other since,” Hülkenberg said to German broadcaster RTL, as quoted by PlanetF1.com. “We never really exchanged ideas before that either.
“Mick is also a different generation. We never had a real relationship, something like he has with Sebastian. The story is what it is. If it hadn’t been me, it might have been someone else.”
Schumacher scored points in both the Austrian and British Grand Prix in 2022 but was generally outperformed by Magnussen, the Dane having returned to the sport himself after a year away.
Hülkenberg knows what it is like to be dropped after losing his seat with the Renault F1 Team at the back of the 2019 season, and he says that without putting in the performances, the likelihood of retaining a drive lessens.
“F1 is about performance,” Hülkenberg said. “If you convince and perform, you have a job, you’re a hot stock.
“If there is no performance, then it’s over very quickly.”
